Kansas City Gets New Venture Fund With $25M For Startups

Leawood Venture Capital is a new venture fund based in Kansas City that opened their doors t the beginning of the year.

Th fund has already started investing in local startups. In April Leawood participated in Pepper IoT’s $8.5M series B round. Pepper has a platform that makes managing multiple iOT devices a breeze.

The fund, led by Brendan Fallis and Karl Gemperli is providing growth capital and advisory services to tech startups across the U.S. They also plan to invest wisely and back startups locally in Kansas City. The fund hopes to invest in about 12 deals per year with investment capital ranging between $500,000 and $1.25 million per deal.

“This fund gives people here in Kansas City access to deals they normally wouldn’t have access to,” Fallis ,told Startland News. “It’s been a fun ride here in Kansas City getting the fund up and running, making investments and getting involved in the startup community.”

Brendan Fallis grew up in Silicon Valley, and still maintains several connections there. He was a senior vice president at local firm Elecys, which sold for $70 million to an Omaha based firm. Gemperli was previously the CEO at the same company.

The firm has invested in five deals to date, including the Kansas City Pepper iOT deal last month.

The Kansas City startup community continues to grow. Other funds like KC Rise, Fireband Ventures, Royal Street Ventures and others are supporting startups across the region.

“If there’s one thing that’s been the most surprising and fun part is the deal flow that’s here in our backyard,” he said. “There’s a vibrant startup community with a number of great opportunities here — that’s been the most exciting thing for me — to participate in some of the regional deal flow, to hear about all the great things that are happening in Kansas City and to fuel that growth.” Fallis said.